Recently two of our customers, Erik and John, started organizing a tenkara gathering in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had been looking forward to returning to the area. The last time I had been there I spent a week fishing every day after work. The mountain stream fly-fishing in the area is phenomenal. That was pre-tenkara, and I had been looking forward to tenkara fishing in those mountain streams. I knew they would be tenkara-perfect. Indeed they were.

Below is a slideshow of the 4 days I spent in the area. Every day as perfect as it could be. On Thursday I arrived at the airport in late afternoon, checked into my hotel, and headed to one of my favorite streams. I called Erik up, and he was already there – mind you we had no plans to meet that afternoon, but we had a blast fishing together. Friday was a nice repeat, and it included John. Awesome company in small stream fishing. On Friday night I gave a talk at Western Rivers Fly Shop in SLC. They don’t currently carry our gear, but were very welcoming and eager to learn more about tenkara and have their customers also learn about it. The talk was followed by a great dinner at a sushi restaurant not far from the shop. Saturday we resumed the “talk” with on-stream demonstrations. We fished all day, caught some nice fish. More fishing Sunday on one of the most gin-clear streams I know. On Monday I headed up to Logan to meet with our dealers in the area. Round Rocks brought in a great crowd, many already avid tenkara anglers. The rivers were completely out of control and it was raining but I still gave the on-stream demonstration, on the stream that runs right behind their store. It was very cool to teach real tenkara to people that were so used to using it similarly to western fly-fishing.

Today I came to Bozeman and already have some great stories, which I hope to share soon, including tenkara fishing in the middle of an unexpected snow blizzard today. Tomorrow morning I’m heading on a 2-day backpacking trip with Ryan Jordan, founder of Backpackinglight.com. Definitely looking forward to this and to sharing it all with you. All in all a great time. Enjoy the pictures.